Rafael Nadal Decides to Skip Grass Court Tennis Ahead of Wimbledon

Rafael Nadal captivated his 12th Roland Garros crown on Sunday as he defeated Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in the finals of the French Open 2019. However, Rafael Nadal suggested that he would skip the grass court events to rest before the start of the Wimbledon which is scheduled to start from July 1.

Last year, Rafael Nadal reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon despite missing the pre-Wimbledon events. He pulled out of his scheduled participation at the Queen’s Club Championship in the 2018 season and entered the Wimbledon Championships without any match practice on grass.

Rafael Nadal suggested in a post-match press conference that he would rather rest than play before entering the Championships, Wimbledon. He said, “I know I played a great event last year. I have been able to be very close to winning another title there.”

“As everybody knows, I love to play on grass. And as everybody knows, I am not able to play so many weeks in a row as I did 10 years ago, eight years ago. So I have to do my schedule, ” added Rafael Nadal.

The 18-time grand slam champion revealed that he was satisfied with his performance at the Wimbledon in the past two years. He added, “The last two years that I played in Wimbledon, I felt close again. Even though I lost to Gilles Muller in 2017, I played great tennis there too.

Rafael Nadal recalled how close he was to reach the finals in the 2018 edition of the biggest grass court event. He said, “I was very close to being in the quarter-finals, and last year I was one point away from the final.”

Rafael Nadal later confirmed that he would skip the events before Wimbledon. He continued, “So I will not play before Wimbledon, of course. I felt competitive in the last couple of years, so why do I need to change that? What gives me a better chance is being healthy more than playing a lot of matches before.”